President Obama thinks the Western news media, which presumably includes the U.S. media, gives Russian President Vladimir Putin more credit than he deserves.
Obama met at the White House on Thursday with his Export Council, which includes several CEOs from the private sector and other administration officials. The council “advises the president on policies and programs that affect U.S. trade performance and promote export expansion,” according to the White House.
“Putin does not have good cards and he actually has not played them as well as sometimes the Western press seems to give him credit for,” Obama said when asked by reporters about Russia’s economic standing across the globe. “There’s been an improvisational quality to this whole process because the situation in Ukraine actually took Russia by surprise and it’s working for him politically domestically but profoundly damaging in terms of their economy long term, not just short term.”
Obama added that Putin would “succeed” if a rift were to manifest between the U.S. and Europe at large.
Relations between the U.S. and Russia have cooled throughout Obama’s presidency, stemming largely from the Russian government’s aggression in the Crimean region of Ukraine and the eastern areas of that nation. The Obama administration responded by authorizing heavy economic sanctions against Russia.
It is also suspected that the Russian government is behind cyber hacking against the U.S. military. And in 2013, the Kremlin granted asylum to American contractor Edward Snowden after he leaked thousands of documents from the National Security Agency on U.S. surveillance and intelligence operations.
